


Three Storms before you Learn to Float

by karrenia_rune



Category: Original Work
Genre: Alien Character(s), Eco Systems around red dwarf stars, Gen, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-01
Updated: 2017-04-01
Packaged: 2018-10-13 15:45:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10516815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karrenia_rune/pseuds/karrenia_rune





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ExtraPenguin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExtraPenguin/gifts).



"Three Storms until You Learn to Float"

I've been carrying that horse around for such a very long time, so long that I hardly even notice it's heft anymore. 

When the head of the Ministry for Astronomy and Physics offered me a position aboard the "Daphne" I jumped at the chance. I would sacrifice all of those nights and days if I could make my dreams a reality. If I am strong enough to take these dreams and make them mine.

My name is Felicia Gonzalez and I just had to believe that I was not alone in my belief that there might be other worlds out there capable of supporting carbon-based life-forms.

I was a scientist who came from a long line of scientists, on both sides of my family. My father was a botanist, my father a physicist.

I think it was more or less expected that the only daughter of distinguished retired University professors would go on in the family profession. I think they thought of this as something of legacy project.

It was to be a convoy of long-range ships outfitted with the newly discovered faster-than-light engines capable of making the jump out of our own solar system and out to the Beyond.

I had a colleague in the sciences department, Edward Mitchell, who told me that he also had been assigned to the "Daphne" as well. The military enforces a quasi-military command structure and would be in overall command but us researchers and scientists would make up the bulk of the task force.

That was fine with me, as long as the military didn't start feeling its oats and get themselves involved in project that would be better left in civilian hands.

There was something visceral about being the first living breathing people to explore previously uncharted and unknown places. 

Even here on Earth there are very few unexplored regions on either land or sea. Those that do remain most likely will not remain long unexplored within my lifetime, but I digress.  
We were about to reach beyond the stars and if I am being honest with myself the idea both terrifies and excites me.

I talked to Ed, about this; and he too had expressed concerns about the undertaking. 

His field was sociology and we'd worked together previously on other projects. 

I respected him as a fellow researcher and I personally liked him. He was one of the few people who really listened, and then offered his opinion and or support regardless of whether it benefited him or not.

The reality of the ecosystem around the planet orbiting a red dwarf star was nothing like I had ever expected it to be, but my grandmother had always told me to never build on expectations.  
When we had been there for over 8 months something began to go wrong. Just what exactly what was wrong we could not quite figure out; yet.

He brought in Dr. Annika Jones and we all gathered in his quarters to hash things out.

"This may sound crazy," Annika said as she reached up and ran her hands through her long mane of blond hair. "But I don't think we're as alone out here as we thought. Or we've got another problem."

We sat there for a moment in silence as we let that last statement sink in. Edward was the first to break it.

"That might come as a shock to our military bosses," Edward muttered. "I think they were hoping that we'd have the place terra-formed and ready for mass colonization before the end of next year."

"I know, I know," I muttered. "Major McAdams is on my case about how and why, and when we the various departments can maximize efficiency in order to do just that."

"I don't envy you, that task, Felicia," replied Annika." She sighed and then added, personally the brass could stand to wait, and I agree with Ed, that this will definitely rattle their collective cages; that is if I'm right and not just imagining things."

"What did you see?" I asked.

Annika Jones reached up and then ran her manicured nails through her mane of blonde hair. 

"You guys know that I don't like shrinks, but Dr. Astrinde said I might be exhibiting signs of acute claustrophobia. I think it might have more to die with the idea of all that space out there if something should go wrong with the EVA suits."

"If that's the case, Ed said, we can find someone else to go out on the routine exterior maintenance checks. You don't have to do it all yourself, Annika."

"That's sweet, Ed, but I'm okay," Annika replied. "As you all know the Eagle or EEGL is short for the Eruptive Event Generator (Gibson and Low) helps us map out the paths of these magnetically structured clouds, called coronal mass ejections or CMEs before they reach Earth."

Edward added. "We've made considerable improvements and tweaks to the original mode from NASA's initial calculations which were based on the fundamental physics theory that describes the event – in this case, the plasma properties and magnetic free energy, or electromagnetics, guiding a CME’s movement through space."

"At first I thought it was a malfunction with the "The Eagle" or it could be just my eyes playing tricks on me."

"It could be, The Eagle is our window on the solar flares from the red dwarf star around our station, not such the tech array..." I trailed off. 

It was too early to start to begin to worry. I had lived and worked alongside Annika now for over six months and twice that long aboard the "Daphne" on the way here. I liked her and respected her as a logical and pragmatic scientist. She would not go jumping to any unwarranted conclusions.

"I know that" Annika said testily, you know that. Try telling that to Major McAdams!"

"Go on," Edward encouraged her.

"I don't know how to begin. As you all know, I'm not the most imaginative of people. Don't all agree at once." She laughed at the self-mocking joke and then continued. "I tend to think in facts and figures, so when I was out there doing an EVA, and the spontaneous imagery began to happen, I thought I was going crazy."

"Is this the first time this has happened?" Edward asked.

"Yes. I went Dr. Astrinde, and she recommended mediation, in lieu of pills." I tried that. I don't think it helped.

***  
Annika sat on the floor of her quarters rocking back and forth much like she had been accustomed to doing when she had gone to visit her grandmother in San Fransisco and they waited out an earthquake together.  
She remembered her grandma nursing a cup of steaming black tea and sitting in her chair refusing to run out screaming into the streets like many of her neighbors would do; repeating over and over in a hushed undertone, that this too shall pass.  
Annika closed her eyes and all sensations, even the subtle yet unmistakable thrumming of the engines and the power core that made all functions aboard the station not only possible but necessary ceased to impinge on her consciousness.

Instead; she was back in that Bay Area apartment rife with the aromas of hot black tea no sugar, grey, blue and yellow afghans wrapped around them both and the radio playing in the background.  
She was just wandering down another memory pathway when her body was rocked by a lurching movement and she toppled over. 

It was a good thing Annika was already on the floor of her quarters, she felt like she had been in a waking trance for who knows how long and the inside of her mouth tasted like she'd been chewing rusty nails.  
She went over to the washroom and ran the water in the sink, rubbing the water over first her face and then scooping up a handful into her mouth.

That done, Annika decided to go looking for Felicia and Edward; they would understand and help her figure what was going on. Memories of her childhood in San Fransisco shelved to a back corner of her mind.  
***  
Seismic waves begin to hit the station, gradual at first and then increasingly stronger and stronger with each successive wave. Not too long after each wave hits everyone aboard begins to experience hallucinate and experience waking visions of their past lives.

The amplitude varies greatly with the rate of progression which creates an expanding ripple-like pattern. If we could what those waves were doing to the outside of the space station it might have looked much like someone was hammering on a massive sheet of metal with a giant hammer and creating ripples like stones flung into a pond.

Felicia, for her part, felt like she was being subsumed into some kind of alien harmonics. At first, she recalled running across the cornfields with the wind rippling her long brown hair out behind her like the small but swiftly moving banner of a tiny army.

It was so rare that she had had an opportunity to be by herself, without the rest of her extended family around. 

She spread her arms out and leaned forward bracing her adolescent body into the strong wind of a spring morning. She toppled forward and got a face-full of the aroma of rich earth, green grass and other growing things.  
The music of wind soughing through the corn fields, swelled, becoming a melody all its own. She did not want to think of the musical/mathematical problems that her father would make her find/solve within the compositions by the German composer, Bach; but they rose up despite her best efforts. 

She could not help thinking, 'Why do follow the call again, Why do I follow this heart of mine. Ride the waves into the wild beyond? I can make it all right, but it's you who lifts me to higher ground.'  
Edward closed his eyes and it did not hurt at all. The music and the visions felt like something he had always wanted to hear but had never known quite how to hear them or experience them until now.  
***  
In the quarters assigned to the military side of the task force Lieutenant Samantha "Fireball" MacKenzie, called Sammie by her family and close friends, stood combing out and pinning her long brown hair, wondering how she had wound up here so far away from Earth. When she had volunteered for the mission it had seemed like a grand adventure.

She just needed a fresh place to start, somewhere where no one cares about the engine grease underneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos on her ankles. 

Samantha just wished she could have been assigned on any ship except the "Banshee" whose first officer is Doug Spaulding, (the guy made my guy made my life miserable in high school.  
It's been a long time since I've trusted anyone, and it's he's certainly the last person I expected to trust.. but I think it's safe to say that it's time to put all of that behind me.

Samantha kept thinking: (Why do I follow that call again, No one hears you when one is worlds away, everyone seems to be looking through and the glory fades. But I can feel your pain. It's what I see inside, I see it in your eyes. Why do I risk my life, it's like a siren's call. I thought I was done with all of that, yet here I am again.)

 

***  
In his own quarters, Lieutenant Doug Spaulding's mind goes back to his glory days in high school when he was the proverbial big man on campus. He once was the star of the basketball team. Oh, sure it was a small town, and as much as he loved the hero-worship that came along with the guts and the glory he had always held on to aspirations of bigger and better things. That's why he joined the U.S Army and later when space exploration opened up, the stellar task force. 

*****************  
"Sir, I have to speak to you. It's urgent," I said. as I stood just outside the door to Major Liam McAdams office.  
The officer who stood just to one side of the threshold had the harried, official look of an aide, and who gruffly told me. "The Major left orders that he was not to be disturbed.

"Yeah, okay," I replied and shouldered my way past him.

"Major, this can't wait. Dr. Jones, Dr. Mitchell and I have findings that you need to know about."

"Let them in. Now, what's this all about? The Major had a reputation of projecting the tough affable but no-nonsense approach, but also for not allowing much in the way of slack. We had to be careful how we handled this.

"Sir, we have a situation and that if it is left unchecked we may not have a viable colony for much longer," said Annika quietly yet forcefully.

"Have a seat," Major McAdams said, with a commendably straight face.

We sat down and began to lay out the facts as we knew them.

"The dynamic space environment that surrounds Earth – travel through – can be rattled by huge solar eruptions from the sun, which spew giant clouds of magnetic energy and plasma, a hot gas of electrically charged particles, out into space. The magnetic field of these solar eruptions are difficult to predict and can interact with a planetary body's magnetic fields, causing space weather effects."

"What do you expect me to do about it, Dr. Gonzalez?"

"Over the course of an hour, the solar waves traveled for a distance equal to 10 Earth diameters before fading into the fiery background of the Sun's photosphere. Unlike water ripples that travel outward at a constant velocity, the solar waves accelerated from an initial speed of 22,000 miles per hour to a maximum of 250,000 miles per hour before disappearing."

"Let's pretend for a moment that I'm following all of that, happens after that," asked McAdams.

"People have looked for evidence of seismic waves from flares before, but they didn't have a theory so they didn't know where to look," says Kosovichev. Several years ago Kosovichev and Zharkova developed a theory that can explain how to predict and measure these waves with a greater degree of accuracy."

"Are these waves dangerous?"

"In a word, Yes. One, because we can't have these waves constantly rocking the station like a giant rattle. Two, because on the heels of each seismic wave the crew begins to experience what can only be described as hallucinations."

"I'm not entirely convinced that this is a good idea, but I'm willing to hear you out, Drs. Gonzalez, Mitchell and Jones."

"So, the only solution to counteract both effects nip this problem in the bud," Edward added is to go to the source."

"What will you need?" Major McAdams was terse, but he knew what had to be done.

"A shuttle, one specially outfitted and designed to carry cargo and a special array we're still putting the finishing touches on," Edward replied, giving me a sidelong glance as much as if to say that he was relieved as I was that we had managed to convince McAdams of the situation; more importantly that he was willing to give us whatever resources and personnel we would require.

"Sir" the officer at the door spoke up. "Sounds like this is a dangerous mission. If you need me, you'll need the best shuttle pilot available and that's me."

"Is that so?" Lieutenant Spaulding?"

"Sir, Yes, Sir!" exclaimed the young man."

"How long until the array is ready to go, folks?"

"One, maybe two hours," I replied.

"You'll have your pilot and I'll assign Lt. MacKenzie as navigator. And folks, let's all hope this works."

*****  
Sam is the pilot, Lt. Doug Spaulding at navigation and the three scientists with their scanning array and the payload mounted to the snout of their shuttle like a very high-tech of the Earth animal, the narwhal.

"Where are we going?" asked Doug.

"We call it the Firedrake's Eye, because its shape and size kind of reminds me of Jupiter's Great Red Spot," replied Edward.

"Okay, then, don't answer my question. Geez!" Lt. Spaulding said.

"What do we do when we get there?"

"Hopefully the array that we've brought along will help us stabilize the solar flares or at least give us a way of calculating how much of a distance we can put between ourselves and the red dwarf star that makes up the Fire Drake's Eye," replied Annika.

"That's all?" Lieutenant MacKenzie chimed in. 

"Easier said than done, of course," I replied. "We've got a narrow window of opportunity and then there are those 'visions' that seem to follow on the heels of each successive gravimetric wave."

"Got it, Dr. Gonzalez. This is the Narwhal, to Space Station Orpheus", just finalizing last minute flight checklist; do we have a go for launch?" Lt. Spaulding said via the shuttle's interface with the colony's well-being."

"This is Orpheus, you are clear for launch, releasing docking clamps now. Over."

"Copy that. We are good to go," Doug exclaimed and took the shuttle out and away, engines firing up as he engaged them and we coasted away.  
****  
Encounter

At first the trip was uneventful however that was not to last and buckled in for a rough trip because I think we all expected that the gravimetric waves that had been wreaking havoc on the station and us were not over.  
We figured that the closer we got to the source the stronger they would become. It was a rough ride that Annika likened to trying to ride a bucking bronco. I had to take her word for that since I had never experienced anything like that.

The waves were bad and had to give Doug credit; he handled the shuttle well, and our shields were still holding even with everything taken into account. Meanwhile, Edward, Annika and I worked on the calculations to launch the probe.

"We're here," Sammie announced.

We launched our array into the corona of the red dwarf star and then waiting for the telemetry from the probe to come back. "Fingers crossed people and the probe doesn't come apart or burn up," Annika muttered.  
"It's shielding is still holding and the telemetry is just starting to come in," Edward announced with his head bent over his console.

It was then that we heard the first sounds of something we had never expected to hear. It was a series of clicks and clacks and the whirring and buzzing coming through the shuttle's speakers that made the bones of our skulls ache. It was painful just, I just don't quit, it was penetrating, that was it; penetrating.

"It sounds like a cicada," I muttered.

"Come again?" Samantha asked.

"Now that you mention does sound like a cicada," Edward added. "In fact, cicadas are unique among insects in their ability to emit loud and annoying sounds."

"Where's it coming from," I asked, this time thinking that perhaps we might be on to something.

Just then the noise was accompanied by images again and when next any of the shuttle crew could focus on anything a trio of vaguely man-like beings stood in the center of the now crowded shuttle.  
We stared at them, they stared at us, not hostile, just intensely curious.

"Well, there's one thing for sure, if that's isn't incontrovertible proof that we're not alone out here; then I don't know what is." Edward sighed and offered everyone a shaky smile.

"How do we make them," Samantha muttered sotto voice understand what we're doing and what we want them to do?"

"We need to send a message." Edward grinned, adding, "one that they'll understand."

"How to do you plan to send this message, Ed? Annika asked. She sounds more curious than hostile.

"Cicadas on other use tymbrals and replicating this sound is difficult because the insects' chirp is non-linear. This is fascinating. The buckling that insects do on our world is not uniform and the tymbral surfaces vibrate out of phase with each other and then somehow combine to make a sound that's so loud it can drown out even the noisiest summer barbecues," Edward explained.

 

Doug squirmed in the pilot's chair. "Okay, Doc, but if you don't mind my saying so, I don't know it can take much more of this ah, noise."

Edward stood up, and cautiously approached the trio. "Okay, here goes. I'm going to talk, okay?"

The aliens dipped their heads almost in unison and waited.

Edward talked and whipped out his laptop, using a parabolic program that he used to modulate accompany what he was saying with varying degrees of sound/frequency and harmonics and signs until he found one close to the one used by the aliens.

Annika rocked back and forth in counterpoint to the rhythm of the harmonics with her eyes closed. I wanted to do the same but I could quite the correct puppet strings in my brain to do so. 

Samantha was staring at the tattoos on her hands and gritting her teeth. Apparently, we are affected differently by this first contact.

I couldn't begin to follow any of it, but it seemed to work because the aliens with something akin to a bow sent a wave of images that indicated they understood and would stop the gravimetric waves.

"You did it!" exclaimed Annika with an energy she usually reserved for results in the lab.

"Yeah," Edward murmured and offered us all another shaky grin as he wavered and would have fallen to the floor of the shuttle if Annika had not rushed over and helped to his seat. I'd be lying if I said I did not feel a sudden rush of jealousy at that, but who was I to complain?

After all, not only had we saved the space station we had also made the first contact with a new alien species.

And as far as personal feelings went, I liked both Edward and Annika, and wished the best for both of them.  
***  
Conclusion

"I think they're beingn't dangerous or even had malicious intentions. I think they were merely curious," said Edward once we were all safe back in the habitat ring of the colony.

"There's still one thing I don't understand," said and cast fondly irritated glances around at all of us gathered in the officer's lounge as if daring us to give him grief about this. "Dr. Mitchell, how did you manage to communicate with the aliens?"

"I think it was more of a case that they were willing to make the first move, by reaching out with those 'visions'," Edward trailed off. "I don't think that word quite conveys what I what it to mean or encapsulates the totality of the experience."

"We've all experienced the feeling of being overwhelmed by this sensation of memories/other places, other times, other experiences, by now, that I think I understand what he's trying to get at."

"I figure that this was their way of attempting to first to understand what nature of being we was and lacking a recognizable linguistic structure that would be comparable or something we would understand, they instead relied on imagery."

"By reaching into our sub-conscious minds," added Annika.

"The aliens are transitory almost phasic beings existing within the particle field. I believe that the visions were their way of communicating trying to understand what sort of beings the new lifeforms in their turf. of space," Edward added.

"Sounds daft to me," Doug replied, scratching at several days' worth of blond stubble on his cheeks.

"No dafter than other means of communications invented by humans over the millions of years. In any case, it dawned on me that if they could use imagery to communicate than so could we," continued Edward.

"We mapped and measured the solar flares, timed them so we send/activate the array, once the shuttle had established an orbit around the main red dwarf star," I said.

"And they, the aliens understood all that, and agreed to stop causing the waves?" asked Samantha.

"More or less," I replied and smiled. It's about time that that horse that I've been carrying around with me for so long can finally be put to rest and I can move on.


End file.
